Notes are a way for you to gather your thoughts or research on bills, then share your thoughts with members of your workspace and clients. Notes can be seen by any member of your Abstract workspace, and can be shared externally as well if you choose. Keep reading to learn more.

To create a Note, click on the "Create" button in the bottom right corner of any Bill Page. An empty note will be displayed on your screen.

Abstract Notes have a number of capabilities that you can leverage to communicate with your members.

Clicking on the "Edit" button in the top right corner of the note will allow you to rename the Note and add a body of text to it that you can share with your clients. Make sure to click save before moving on.

You can attach files to a Note using the "Attach File" button that is located above the bill card. Clicking on the button will open your device's file directory, where you can search for and attach the file of your choosing. Note that attached files cannot exceed 1MB.

While creating your Note, you may want to pull specific lines to share or reference back quickly. To do this, click the "Add highlighted lines" button located at the bottom right of the Note and select the lines of the bill's text that you would like to highlight. All selected lines will be directly displayed on your Note for you or others in your workspace to reference anytime.

Notes also serve as a space for discussion between you and members of your workspace. The comment section to the right of the Note allows you to leave new comments and reply to existing ones. Once a comment has been posted, the owner of the Note receives both an email and an in-platform notification alerting them of the new comment.

After performing any of the actions above, you are free to display your Notes in a Bill List that you can share externally.

To display your Notes in your Bill List so you and others in your workspace can review and edit them at a glance, simply click the small note icon in the right corner of the bill card in your List.

From here, you can choose to display all Notes from that bill, or just a few select Notes. Only the Notes you choose to display will appear any version of your exported Bill List (this includes PDF, CSV, Shared LiveLink, and Public Comment access levels).

When you're ready to export your List, click the purple Export button in the top-right corner of your Bill List, select a template, and click Edit Template. Under "Bill Information," you will find Notes. If you'd like to include Notes in your report, make sure "Notes" is under the "Include" column. Only Notes that you have selected to display will be visible in any shared version of your Bill List.

To keep your Notes internal-only, use the six gray dots on the left side of "Notes" to drag "Notes" into "Don't Include."

Still have questions? Reach out to Abstract Support using the chat feature in your Abstract workspace.